Book Review: How to Live in Small Spaces | Terence Conran

About the Author

Sir Terence Conran who was born on 4 October 1931 in England has a big impact in our modern life. He studied textile design and after that he opened workshop of furniture design, ceramics, and fabric in the East End. He had no time to waste and until now with all his eagerness to work hard, he has owned several restaurant as he really interested on Parisian-style food since he visited France in around 1950s and also he owned the famous household furnishing retailer "HABITAT". These days, he published some book and work together with some fashion brand as the designer.

Review

How to Live in Small Spaces by Terence Conran educates people of how to maximize the small space to the fullest. He opens people mindset & knowledge for a small space and showing them how to enjoy it by thinking positively because there will be some advantages aspect behind those all that you will be felt as in the future, space will be very limited & luxury. Not only that, he also gives some lesson for all interior designer to design it right, not from superficial styling / purely decoration.

The problem that people who live in town & cities must deal with is to live in space which getting smaller and more expensive. This book will demonstrate how to maximize the space but yet still impersonate the stylish and functional home. As this book is divided in 2 parts where the part 1 is Making the Most of Small Spaces which focus more on the important of design & planning. He will guide you to set up everything from layout, stairs, storage, partition, lighting, and details. Furthermore, he will also suggest how to apply color, texture, and furnishing to make the space look and feel larger. While part 2 will consist of area by area breakdown from studio, living area, kitchen, bedrooms, office. Each of that will have the space-saving idea and strategies of storage solution. It also has the 6 international case study to show the real life example of how good design principle effectively applied.

Moreover, there will be another things that you, the home owner or the interior design can learn from this book, to learn any tips and trick that he has made as he has some experienced in it. Those all start with the suggestion to study the different area in detail & accurate in the certain things, and don't forget to pay attention on the scale & proportion in some parts that he emphasize it well in this book for you to be more careful & accurate. He also include education for client before they hire a professional & get to know the step by step in the construction.

For me, this book is really interesting to read since the book is showing the things that become an issue right now and it gives people education about living in small space. As example in Singapore where mostly flat even also some hotel become more and more smaller. Through every point that this book has emphasize it opens people's idea about what and how the space will become as some of them haven't got the vision about these kind of space before. I really like the way he put the explanation in every point with the image reference, and options of alternative with the pros and cons. However, the case study hasn't intrigued me a lot as it doesn't quite fit for some country especially in Singapore here where what he showed is some contemporary home not that some studio apartment that is more linked to where everybody stayed right now.